CHAPTER ONE:
Conservatives Before and After Earth Day

EXCERPT FROM PAGE 20

“By the mid-1970s, oil crises and a slowing economy sapped environmentalism of some of its popular appeal: in a faltering economy, fewer Americans had much enthusiasm for environmental regulations that might impede growth. The economic anxieties of the 1970s presented conservatives with an opportunity to accomplish what had long eluded them: win the White House. To do so, Republicans began to reverse many of their positions on environmental protection. Reagan, who by the time of his presidential run in 1980 had spent two decades honing his conservative pitch—largely focused on the toxicity of government regulation and the blessings of American free enterprise—added caustic dismissals of environmental regulation to his campaign speeches, inaugurating a new partisan era of environmental politics.”

Primary Sources ​

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1964

Source: C-SPAN

Ronald Reagan “A Time for Choosing” Speech [video excerpt] | Transcript
​Ronald Reagan supported Barry Goldwater for president in 1964.  In a speech in support of Goldwater in October 1964, Reagan stressed the importance of small government and individual liberty. Reagan’s message propelled him into the national spotlight as an important figure in the Republican Party.

1970

Source: Marion S. Trikosko (Library of Congress)

Barry Goldwater The Conscience of A Majority excerpt 
In 1969, Barry Goldwater returned to the U.S. Senate after stepping away to run for president in 1964. While in the Senate, Goldwater had a mixed record on environmental protection. He opposed the Wilderness Act of 1964, but co-sponsored the Senate bill that later became the Clean Air Act of 1970. In his 1970 book The Conscience of A Majority, Goldwater stood in support of a “pollution free environment,” which required individual and institutional attention.   ​

Source: NARA

President Nixon announces the EPA | PDF 
In January 1969, a massive oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California forced Nixon and his administration to confront environmental problems just as Nixon’s first term as president began. Seven months after Earth Day in April 1970, Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency.

Source: Mary C. Rabbitt (USGS)

“THE OCEANS AND THE ATMOSPHERE ARE INTERACTING PARTS OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM UPON WHICH WE DEPEND NOT ONLY FOR THE QUALITY OF OUR LIVES, BUT FOR LIFE ITSELF”
​- NIXON

1971

Source: Charles O’Rear (EPA)

​Ruckelshaus Speech on (second) Earth Day 
​On the second Earth Day in April 1971, Nixon’s EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus delivered a riveting speech to a crowd at Ohio State University. In his address, Ruckelshaus emphasized the need to move beyond awareness of environmental dangers and into an era of reform and action. ​

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Powell Memo
Soon-to-be Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell wrote this memo for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1971 as conservatives grew concerned about the growing influence of liberals and an expanding regulatory state.  It offered conservatives a roadmap for exerting their political power in the defense of individualism and free enterprise.

1972

Source: Shel Hershorn (EPA DOCUMERICA Project, NARA)

President Nixon 1972 Republican Platform
These excerpts from the 1972 Republican Party’s platform regarding environmental issues reflected the party’s commitment to environmental reform on issues such as air and water quality,  toxic substances, and natural resource conservation. In fact, much of the platform highlighted President Nixon’s leadership and faulted Democrats’ failure to move his aggressive agenda in Congress. See all the Republican Party’s Platforms in the data section of this website.

“WILDERNESS AREAS, FORESTS, FISH AND WILDLIFE ARE PRECIOUS NATURAL RESOURCES” - NIXON REPUBLICAN PLATFORM

Source: NARA

President Nixon Veto Statement on the Clean Water Act | PDF  
After the success of the Clean Air Act in 1970, a bill to ameliorate water quality  known as the Clean Water Act passed through Congress. Prior to the introduction of the bill, 70% of industrial waste received no treatment before being dumped into waterways. Despite strong bipartisan support, Nixon claimed the $24 billion price tag was too high and would place an undue burden on industries. In the attached document, Nixon announces his decision to veto the bill. ​​Congress acted quickly to overturn the veto.

“I AM COMPELLED TO WITHHOLD MY APPROVAL FROM S. 2770, THE FEDERAL WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1972...” - NIXON

1977

Source: Miller Center (University of Virginia)

President Carter Address to the Nation on Energy [video] | Transcript
In his 1977 speech, Jimmy Carter famously proclaimed that combatting the energy crisis was the “moral equivalent of war.” Carter outlined plans for the United States to reduce oil consumption, protect the environment, and conserve resources while continuing to support economic growth and industry. His speech stood in stark contrast to Ronald Reagan, who believed that environmental protections hampered American productivity.

Source: Library of Congress

1980

Source: C-SPAN

Ronald Reagan speech from 1980 campaign [video excerpt] | Transcript
​After an era of environmental progress in the 1970s, Ronald Reagan’s acceptance speech at the 1980 Republican National Convention showed his clear opposition to conservation and the energy crisis. Reagan emphasized the importance of American coal and natural resources and blamed Democrats for cooking up an “indigestible economic stew” that was stifling productivity. This speech marked the beginning of the Republican reversal. ​

Julian Simon’s “Life on Earth is Improving” The Washington Post article 
In contrast to Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book,  Julian Simon, a professor of economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana, argued that entrepreneurship and innovation would solve ailments resulting from a rising human population. His 1980 The Washington Post article critiqued the need for conservation of natural resources.  ​​

2018

Source: C-SPAN

President Trump State of the Union Address [video excerpt] | Transcript
In his first state of the union address, President Trump announced that the war on coal was finally over. He was enthusiastic about American energy and made no mention of conservation, environmental protection, or climate change in the entirety of his speech. ​

“WE HAVE ENDED THE WAR ON AMERICAN ENERGY — AND WE HAVE ENDED THE WAR ON CLEAN COAL” - TRUMP

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Discussion Questions

1. What are some reasons why the Republican Party had a stronger claim to the “Environmental Party” than the Democrats up until the early 1970’s?
2. ​In what ways were the roots of modern conservatism to be found in the 1930’s? In what ways did conservatism only really emerge later?
3. Rather than ideology, what identity was more representative of congressional support for environmental reform?
4. In the 1960’s, John Saylor was a Pennsylvania Republican who strongly supported the coal industry, and Barry Goldwater was the leading Republican conservative who generally opposed government regulations.  Why were Republicans such as Saylor and Goldwater supporters of environmental protection?
5. How did Walter Hickel and the Nixon administration react to the Santa Barbara oil spill? ​How did the early environmental crisis of the 1970’s affect the Nixon administration?
6. Why did Nixon waver on his commitment to an environmental agenda?
7. Why did President Nixon veto the Clean Water Act in 1972?  Why did Congress override his veto? What insight does that offer into early U.S. environmental politics?
8. Although Reagan was one of the leading conservatives in the Republican Party in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, as governor of California he set strict air quality standards, expanded the state parks system, and blocked the development of dams and highways.  Why did a conservative such as Reagan support environmental protections in California?
9. In what way did Lewis Powell’s 1971 memo prefigure contemporary conservative strategy?
10. ​How did the early 1970’s oil crisis affect the rise of conservatism and concerns about the environment?

Additional Readings

Twentieth-Century Antecedents of the Environmental Movement

​“The Trouble with Wilderness” 
​William Cronon | Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995

​ A Symbol of Wilderness: Echo Park and the American Conservation Movement 
Mark W. T. Harvey | Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994

Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency
​​Samuel Hays | Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1959

​ Environmental Inequalities: Class, Race, and Industrial Pollution in Gary, Indiana, 1945–1980
Andrew Hurley | Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995

Escaping the Dark, Gray City: Fear and Hope in Progressive-Era Conservation
Ben Johnson | Yale University Press, 2017

Nature’s New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement
Neil Maher | Oxford University Press, 2007

This Land, This Nation: Conservation, Rural America, and the New Deal
Sarah T. Philips | Columbia, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007
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​The Hunter’s Game: Poachers and Conservationists in Twentieth-Century America
Louis Warren | Yale University Press, 1997​

Rise of Conservatism

The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of Conservative Politics 
John A. Andrew III | New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997

 The Conservative Ascendancy: How the GOP Right Made Political History 
Donald Critchlow | Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007

From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism 
Darren Dochuk | New York: Norton, 2011

“Moving Mountains: The Business of Evangelicalism and Extraction in a Liberal Age”
Darren Dochuck | What’s Good for Business: Business and American Politics since World War II, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012

The Education of Ronald Regan: The General Electric Years and the Untold Story of His Conversion to Conservatism
Thomas W. Evans | New York: Columbia University Press, 2006

The Rise and Fall of Modern American Conservatism
David Farber | Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010

Sleepwalking through History: America in the Reagan Years 
​Haynes Johnson | New York: Norton, 1991

One Nation under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America
Kevin M. Kruse |New York: Basic Books, 2016

The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South 
Matthew Lassiter | Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007

Invisible Hands: The Businessmen’s Crusade against the New Deal 
Kim Phillips-Fein |New York: Norton, 2010

The 1964 Republican Convention: Barry Goldwater and the Beginning of the Conservative Movement
John C. Skipper | Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2016

Earth Day and Origins of Modern Environmentalism

Nixon and the Environment
J. Brooks Flippen | Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000

Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement 
Robert Gottlieb | Washington, D.C., 1993

The Myth of the Silent Spring: Rethinking the Origins of American Environmentalism 
​Chad Montrie | Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018

“Bomb Shelters, Arks and Ecology”
Robert Moses | National Review, 8 September 1970 

Gaylord Nelson Website on Earth Day

The Malthusian Moment: Global Population Growth and the Birth of American Environmentalism
Thomas Robertson | New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2012

The Genius of Earth Day: How a 1970 Teach-In Unexpectedly Made the First Green Generation
​Adam Rome | New York: Hill & Wang, 2013

“’Give Earth a Chance’: The Environmental Movement and the Sixties”
Adam Rome | Journal of American History, 1 September 2003

Crabgrass Crucible:  Suburban Nature and the Rise of Environmentalism in Twentieth-Century America
Christopher C. Sellers |Chapel Hill, NC, 2015